The JAVA 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) platform is often used to build distributed transactional applications for the enterprise. To allow for rapid application design, the J2EE platform provides a component-based approach to the design, development, assembly and deployment of enterprise applications. The J2EE platform offers a multi-tiered distributed application model, and the ability to reuse components. In a multi-tiered distributed application model, application logic is divided into components according to their function and the components are often themselves physically divided onto separate machines depending on their association to a certain J2EE environment tier. Communication for the purpose of coordination between physically and logically distinct components of an enterprise application is therefore often complex.
A common problem with application servers is that, when moving applications from one server to another, either between servers of similar type/manufacture, or between servers of different type, the application configuration information must be duplicated in some manner on the destination server. This is usually a tedious and time-consuming process requiring the expert skills of an application developer or administrator. The process is also prone to error since it usually requires the developer to visually inspect large textual configuration files, and make necessary changes to configure the application for its new environment. Tools that can help the developer in this task would be very useful, would minimize the amount of time required to migrate the application from one server to another, and would promote the feasibility of moving applications from one server, or server product, to another.